Physical iron ore prices posted limited movement on Thursday December 27 with market participants continuing to take caution when trading in the last few days of the year.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $71.48 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $0.09 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $71.31 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $0.09 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $73.56 per tonne cfr Qingdao...Read More

Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More

Despite Chinese winter smelter production cuts generally falling short of expectations and domestic stocks continuing to climb - both of which suggest the market remains far more comfortably supplied at this point than aluminium bulls had been anticipating - prices still rallied into the year-end to reach $2,290/tonne for the first time since March 2012.And after a New Year pull-back the strength...Read More

Copper prices were working lower during most of December and in the absence of any bullish triggers we had been expecting that trend to continue. But in late December, fund buying picked up aggressively, driving prices to a fresh multi-year high of $7,203/tonne. There was little fundamental justification for this and we should consider it a warning that speculators and investors feeling optimistic...Read More

Lead prices remain on their steady uptrend since the summer lows last year and in January have been eroding resistance around October's 6-year high above $2,600/tonne. We expect the underlying strengthening fundamentals, especially on the supply side, to maintain the uptrend this year. Primary producers may well struggle to respond to higher lead prices and we doubt there is much hoarded scrap aro...Read More

The Indian government's plans of hitting 300 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2030 sounds overambitious in the current scenario given that output only managed to reach the 101 million tonne mark in 2017 - indicating three-fold (Read More

After suffering for some seven years through to 2015, the world's steelmakers have had cause for cheer over the past couple of years. After some heavy losses and write-downs, they finally appear to have emerged from the wreckage of the global financial crisis. An economic upswing has taken root in most regions of the world, Chinese steel output and export growth has slowed noticeably, and steel pr...Read More

For a number of years problems at Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, have been casting shadow over the performance of the whole Italian steel industry. Will an acquisition of Ilva by a consortium led by ArcelorMittal, now in its final stage, be a game changer for the market?Following multiple reports of environmental and health problems caused by the Taranto plant, in 2013 Ilva was placed und...Read More

China ended steel production in all of the country's illegal induction furnaces by the end of June last year, it ha claimed.Most operators in China are primarily small private mills that use low-quality scrap to produce substandard rebar. This is mixed with grade III (HRB400) rebar and sold at a discount to construction contractors.For a long period, the government had neither a record of nor cont...Read More

China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...Read More

Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More

The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More

Seaborne pig iron has become relatively competitive versus ferrous scrap over the past year in most regions, and China is no exception. As the first chart below illustrates, the gap between the MBR's proxy for imported pig iron price in China and the Metal Bulletin's Chinese domestic heavy melt scrap price assessment had shrunk by late 2017. The premium averaged $17 per tonne this year to date, co...Read More

The closure of some induction furnaces in China in 2016 followed by the government's crackdown on all unlicensed IFs in mid-2017 freed up some scrap volumes, albeit arguably of low-quality material. Chinese domestic scrap prices came under pressure from the increased supply, which prevented them from keeping pace with the rise in steel and other raw material markets in the fourth quarter of 2016;...Read More

Domestic rebar producers in Egypt have reduced their prices over the past week, however, steel billet import prices have remained stable week on week, sources said on Thursday December 27.Fastmarkets MB's weekly price assessment for steel billet imported into Egypt was at $440-445 per tonne cfr on Thursday, unchanged from the previous assessment.Billet producers in the Commonwealth of Independent...Read More

Most flat steel import prices in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) decreased over the past week due to lower offers, sources said on Thursday December 27.Demand was subdued because stock levels in the UAE are already high and the market wants to see how the steel market will be in 2019, sources told Fastmarkets MB. UAE Chinese offers for hot-rolled coil (HRC) into the UAE were around...Read More

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Friday December 28.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were predominantly lower at the close of trading on Thursday, capped by a sharp downturn in global stock indices while quiet trading continues to keep volumes low. Read more here in our live futures report.Here is how prices looked at the most-recent close of trading on Thur...Read More

Feeding and trial production at Zhuzhou Smelter's new zinc project located in Shuikoushan, Hunan province started on December 26, Fastmarkets MB learned. The project has a 300,000-tonne-per-year zinc capacity smelter, which is replacing the company's closed 450,000-tpy capacity facility in Zhuzhou, also located in Hunan province."We started feeding on December 26, and plan to ramp-up the productio...Read More

Fastmarkets proposes to discontinue its aluminium premium assessments for Antwerp duty-paid and unpaid and Vlissingen duty-paid and unpaid.The proposal is based on market feedback that these premiums are no longer a reference price in the market, with the majority of the market now basing its business on an in-warehouse Rotterdam basis.The in-warehouse premiums are currently published on a weekly...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were predominantly higher during morning trading on Thursday December 27, buoyed by broad strength in global stock indices and a softer US dollar index. Climbing the furthest, the three-month copper price appreciated 0.7% over the morning and continues to trade close to the $6,000-per-tonne support level. Volumes traded for the red metal continu...Read More